1999 4runner build highschool/college edition

[Bad Luck]

Well, I cleared a check engine light (02 sensor code) and the 4wd started working again. About the same time as the 4wd stopped working, my sub also quit working, so maybe one shorted out something with the other? I have no idea, but it's good now so I'm just happy about that.

A couple questions:

1. New tires. Going up to 35's to be with the cool kids. What's the best tire miles/dollars in y'alls opinion?

2. With 35's, I can't go without upgraded UCA's. I'm thinking about JBA's SPC UCA's, but people have also said Freedom Offroad's are good too. For an extra 70 bucks, are JBA worth it?

1) Really depends on the terrain you'll be dealing with. I've seen good reviews from people with milestar patagonia's that use them in the rocks, but they aren't that good for mud.

2) So are you looking at JBA UCAs or SPC UCAs? There is no "JBA SPC UCA".

 

[Iron duke]

1) Really depends on the terrain you'll be dealing with. I've seen good reviews from people with milestar patagonia's that use them in the rocks, but they aren't that good for mud.

2) So are you looking at JBA UCAs or SPC UCAs? There is no "JBA SPC UCA".

Sorry, I meant STD...had a moment of dyslexia there. Terrain is going to be mud, clay, sand, and rock.

 

[Iron duke]

So my brother went Toyota as well after many Chevy's and Volvo's. 2002 Lexus IS300 5 speed with a factory lsd. 265k on the clock and he's made new tires bald in 4k miles of ownership through drifting and doing burnouts. Needless to say Toyota is built to last. It's nice to have a car that can get double mpg's for around town as well lol.

 

[Iron duke]

Well I have another budget friendly setup...the poor man's RTT. It's a camprite oversized cot tent that I will use as a RTT. Right now its just ratchet strapped to a piece of plywood. but soon I will attach the plywood to the basket with u-bolts so it can swing up so I can access the farm jack and traction boards underneath. Then I will create small slits in the cover and attach u-bolts from the frame to the board. Later on I will create a better mounting surface with flatbar, but for now I will see how this idea holds up.

This is how the tent will look all set up. Seems like a decent setup for a fraction of the cost.

 

[RodrickHeffley]

Hey all, haven't been posting a lot lately, I've had much to do getting into colleges, working, and school. Couple things I've done though:

Tinted headlights

This looks cool and since it is legal to have the lightbar on at night (or no cop has stopped me yet), I thought I might as well

took off the rack, rails, and spoiler

I want to try this out for a bit. The wind noise was becoming increasingly annoying, especially having to drive on the highway every day to school. I will re-install everything whenever I need it for off-road trips, but for now I'm going to be relaxing for a bit.

Got my first speeding ticket
Yes, unfortunately I have. My "life in the fast lane" has finally caught up to me. I was on my way up to Athens to visit my girlfriend and got caught 3 hours from my house going 74 in a 55. Luckily, I did not get a super speeder ticket by one mph. March 26 is the court date and hopefully it will go well. Not what I needed happening in this time with my financial state being what it is because of college, but I learned my lesson which is valuable.

Took my girlfriend on her first off-road adventure
It was about time I did! she really did enjoy it and there will be more adventures with her to come.

hey, what did you use to tint the headlights? thanks!


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[Iron duke]

hey, what did you use to tint the headlights? thanks!


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Just used two coats of vht niteshade

 

[jth32199]

Sweet rig man!! I just read through your build thread and it's awesome to see some budget friendly builds. If you ever find yourself out here in California again, hit me up and we can go cruise some badass SoCal trails [emoji1690]

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[Iron duke]

Sweet rig man!! I just read through your build thread and it's awesome to see some budget friendly builds. If you ever find yourself out here in California again, hit me up and we can go cruise some badass SoCal trails [emoji1690]

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Absolutely! I'm glad to have one that won't break the bank although if I could drop 5 grand on it right know I totally would:becky:

 

[Iron duke]

So I've wanted to do this for a while now and I finally found the right deal. I got my front two windows ceramic tinted @20% with a lifetime warranty and it all came out under 100 bucks. I'm really happy with how it turned out, it looks complete now. Not to mention heat deflection is very noticeable. In anything 85 degrees or less I don't even have to use the ac. When I do need it, I just put it on low and it gets cold almost instantly. I really didn't believe there could be such a major change, but there really is. I'd recommend this to anyone living in hot and humid locations for sure. Even if you don't, it modernizes the look of the truck. It will match even better after a few days when everything is dried.

Before:

After:

 

[Iron duke]

After multiple deals on 33-35" tires on 18's falling through and not being high on money, I sold the Misfits on Trail Grapplers. They were super cool and I think it would've been even better with 35's to make the 18's more proportional, but new tires for 18" rims are very expensive. This is why I ended up selling those and going for some 5th gen Tacoma steelies on 255/85r16 Maxxis M-762 Bighorn tires. I'm going to go from fat to skinny and I think I like the pizza cutters in just about every aspect. They're significantly cheaper, road noise is less, fuel economy is better, and still retains decent power with stock gearing. There's a special place in my heart for 315's on SCS F5 wheels though, but that's for when I have a salary. For just over 800 for the complete setup (759 for tires at Walmart and 60 for wheels) it's a very affordable way to get true 33's on anything else than the horrid double three spoke wheels. I have about 1/2" of UCA clearance at normal ride height, 1/4" when turning, and an unhealthy amount of rub when at full droop without wheel spacers. I really don't want to run them if I don't have to, so looking into stock UCA trimming until I get some JBA UCA's. I'm curious about it's handling off-road in different settings too, that will come later.

Some other things on my to-do list:

Swap my 891's for 861's
Replace upper and lower rear control arm bushings (from energy suspension)

Hopefully I can get away on a trail or weekend trip soon, school has kind of taken me over for a bit. Hopefully within the next month I can do some an OBX trip and navigate the Georgia Traverse trail.

 

[Bad Luck]

Swap my 881's for 861's
Replace upper and lower rear control arm bushings (from energy suspension)

Hopefully I can get away on a trail or weekend trip soon, school has kind of taken me over for a bit. Hopefully within the next month I can do some an OBX trip and navigate the Georgia Traverse trail.

Looks nice with the new shoes! Maybe it's a typo but 881 springs are for the front and 861 springs are for the rear. I don't think they're going to swap too well.

 

[cblock406]

Nice! New wheels and tires look much better, good decision.

 

[Iron duke]

Looks nice with the new shoes! Maybe it's a typo but 881 springs are for the front and 861 springs are for the rear. I don't think they're going to swap too well.

**891** good catch...what happens to me when I've been doing trig all afternoon lol

Nice! New wheels and tires look much better, good decision.

Thanks I appreciate it, I definitely think the 3rd gens look best with a 15-17" wheels, but glad I got to play around with the setup and make a couple bucks off it. Also made sure these will clear the 231mm rotors for the TBU that will need to happen in the future.

 

[Iron duke]

Just installed the 861's today and unweighted it looks pretty tall, but with bumpers and luggage it looks great. Rides well on rutted roads at high speed and flexes really well. Here's a couple pictures I took during a "study break".

Unfortunately, I found out my driver's rear axle seal just went out. This is likely due to my TG diff breather getting clogged. I'm going to be modifying it so it won't hold pressure, but I will soon have to do the seals and go ahead with the bearings as well. Hopefully I can do most of the work myself and not break the bank.

 

[Iron duke]

Finished a much needed project after the 861's...a reverse camera. This one I bought from amazon for 40 bucks and it works amazing, couldn't be happier. I edited the width of the lines to go with the vehicle, hardly any lag from when you put it into reverse, and is just as clear in the night as in the day. I wired mine to the tail lights, so it doesn't even take up a charging port. I used the included double-sided sticky tape to place it on the ash tray, and so far so good. Only took about 30 minutes, and I didn't have wire strippers either. Definitely a great mod that could save you from a rear end collision.

Also wanted to flex my working clock lol

Another project I'm starting today is a drawer system. My interior design major girlfriend is helping me make it look decent and got me some of the supplies needed for my Birthday. After a Lowe's run, we made some handles from paracord, got the slider system, 2x12 lumber (measures 1.5"x11") for the supports, and have some plywood that needs to be cut to size. Just need to make the drawers after the platform is put together and sliders installed.

 

[Iron duke]

Got some maintenance done on the 4runner today. I was wobbling all over the highway, so i thought it was my rear control arm bushings. Got a set of those, but haven't installed them yet. Then I was inspecting my sway bars and I was able to move them laterally about 4"...the bushings in the sway arm brackets were absolutely shot, effectively making it like I was running with no sway bars at all front or rear. I removed the sway bar assembly completely from the front and got bushings for the rear and got up to cruising speed (70-75) on one of the more uneven roads and felt solid as a rock! For 25 bucks I'm really happy it was just that, so I can focus more on the rear axle seals and bearings over Christmas.

Saying the bushings and sway bar links were shot is an understatement.

I know, I know, they're MoOg, but 25 bucks and lifetime replacement got me

 

[Iron duke]

Another small thing but I installed an auto fire extinguisher where the cargo cover would go. seems solid, we'll see if it lasts there. Very important to have especially when camping because a bonfire can get out of hand quickly. Also, I've seen some vehicles burning on the side of the road and I don't want to helplessly watch my rig burn up.

As of today I have owned this vehicle for exactly a year. Since then, I have put on almost exactly 22,000 miles and about $3,000 in upgrades, repairs, and maintenance (about 1500 in maintenance/repairs thanks to wheel bearings). This vehicle has been a blast to build, maintain, and explore with and I hope it takes me on many more adventures!

 

[Iron duke]

Wow, what an intense month of school. Pretty big update. First of all I have finished my platform system for the 4runner. Still need to lay some waterproof material on it, but the wood work is done. Just need to build drawers for it at some point.

My buddy also welded up a farm jack mount of the bumper so now I'm a real OveRlAndEr:frog:

Also went another direction with the rear trailing arms. I went ahead and got Apoc Industries Adjustable control arms. These are noticeably better for my vehicle which has about 4.5" of rear lift. I got them on a deal on black friday for 400 shipped and they're made in America. Another plus with these is that they have not only a lifetime warranty, but lifetime servicing for free which blew me away. They make everything from one warehouse in Tennessee only about six hours from where I live so that's really cool and they're the nicest people on the phone as well. So a pre-install review so far is 5 stars for them.

I'm also planning on going with Freel Good Performance's outboard shock relocation kit after my spring semester is over. I will be getting some 12" shocks, which makes adjustable control arms a must without binding the rear end like crazy when fully flexed.

So that I won't have to notch the frame, I'm thinking about going with the Fox Performance series 2.0 shock with an adjustable remote reservoir. I have run Fox on my 2020 Trek Fuel Mountain bike and love them. It only has 130mm of travel in the rear and 160mm travel in the front. the suspension is highly adjustable though, so even though it is only a trail bike, I can dial in the suspension to perform better than purpose built downhill bikes with over 200mm travel front and rear that aren't adjustable. This goes a long way for me, so I think that a well dialed rig with 12" rear travel can perform better than some 3 linked long travel rigs with 16" travel that have not been dialed. I understand that there are limits to everything, but I do believe that adjustability is very important for performance. That just leaves me with beefing up the front end at some point...

I do plan to go pretty ham when I off-road in the future, but I also know that I am over-building it for 90% of my driving. My philosophy is that if I'm going to spend money, I might as well spend some more to get the full benefits. I know that this is becoming less of a college/high school level thread, but I'm in college full time and haven't been making money since I started and am still making it work, so you just have to be wise with the money you have and ration out the ramen supply.

 

[T4topher]

Wow, what an intense month of school. Pretty big update. First of all I have finished my platform system for the 4runner. Still need to lay some waterproof material on it, but the wood work is done. Just need to build drawers for it at some point.

My buddy also welded up a farm jack mount of the bumper so now I'm a real OveRlAndEr:frog:

Also went another direction with the rear trailing arms. I went ahead and got Apoc Industries Adjustable control arms. These are noticeably better for my vehicle which has about 4.5" of rear lift. I got them on a deal on black friday for 400 shipped and they're made in America. Another plus with these is that they have not only a lifetime warranty, but lifetime servicing for free which blew me away. They make everything from one warehouse in Tennessee only about six hours from where I live so that's really cool and they're the nicest people on the phone as well. So a pre-install review so far is 5 stars for them.

I'm also planning on going with Freel Good Performance's outboard shock relocation kit after my spring semester is over. I will be getting some 12" shocks, which makes adjustable control arms a must without binding the rear end like crazy when fully flexed.

So that I won't have to notch the frame, I'm thinking about going with the Fox Performance series 2.0 shock with an adjustable remote reservoir. I have run Fox on my 2020 Trek Fuel Mountain bike and love them. It only has 130mm of travel in the rear and 160mm travel in the front. the suspension is highly adjustable though, so even though it is only a trail bike, I can dial in the suspension to perform better than purpose built downhill bikes with over 200mm travel front and rear that aren't adjustable. This goes a long way for me, so I think that a well dialed rig with 12" rear travel can perform better than some 3 linked long travel rigs with 16" travel that have not been dialed. I understand that there are limits to everything, but I do believe that adjustability is very important for performance. That just leaves me with beefing up the front end at some point...

I do plan to go pretty ham when I off-road in the future, but I also know that I am over-building it for 90% of my driving. My philosophy is that if I'm going to spend money, I might as well spend some more to get the full benefits. I know that this is becoming less of a college/high school level thread, but I'm in college full time and haven't been making money since I started and am still making it work, so you just have to be wise with the money you have and ration out the ramen supply.

One thing about (all) outboard shock kits is that if you don’t run 2-3” wheel spacers (depending on tire size) your tires will rub on your shocks when you flex. You could also notch your frame/wheel wells but that is an absolute ton of work. IMO the shock relocation is better for long travel jump type stuff where both tires get stuffed at the same time vs rock crawling where each wheel needs to be able to go up/down independently as much as possible. Not sure what your intended use of your truck is but I figured it was worth a mention before you spend that much $.

 

[Iron duke]

One thing about (all) outboard shock kits is that if you don’t run 2-3” wheel spacers (depending on tire size) your tires will rub on your shocks when you flex. You could also notch your frame/wheel wells but that is an absolute ton of work. IMO the shock relocation is better for long travel jump type stuff where both tires get stuffed at the same time vs rock crawling where each wheel needs to be able to go up/down independently as much as possible. Not sure what your intended use of your truck is but I figured it was worth a mention before you spend that much $.

Very true and I forgot to mention that, but I have 1.5" wheel spacers already at the house and with the 255 skinnies it helps out a lot on room. I kind of want to get more into the high speed stuff while still being a reliable daily, road trip vehicle that can also crawl. I already have some toyotec 5.25" bump stops so I think I'll be good. there are a lot of calculations I will have to do before welding it on though, so I definitely hear ya there. It is also about 6 months in the future so I can't count my eggs before they hatch lol